Page 32 of Crown of the Fae King

I sighed. “I wish I had a weapon.”

She looked me over, her face pinched with concern. Then she smiled and all those lines disappeared. “I’m your weapon today. No worries.”

I chose to take my lead from her. If she wasn’t worried, I’d pretend I wasn’t either. But when we had a chance to relax again, I was going to nail her down on that claw comment…

We only had an angled view of the building ahead, but we saw a gurney with a body bag being wheeled out to the ambulance by a couple of guys in paper hazmat suits. One of them had a smear of blood down his leg. We got just a glimpse before Wickham’s crowd blocked the view. I watched for his reaction and realized Persi was missing.

His arm lifted in a yawn, his hand rubbed his head like he was trying to wake up, and he made a quick gesture clearly meant for us.

“Come on.” Everly tugged me off to the left. “We’re going to take the back of the building. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a trail.”

She wasn’t talking about breadcrumbs.

Officers stoodin every doorway and red and white tape cordoned off half the block, so getting close was out of the question. A massive amount of blood pooled at the side of the road and had been splashed against the curbing, but that, too, had been cordoned off. We walked fast, searching the sidewalk at our feet and every bush or hiding place along the way. By the time we gave up and turned back, Everly and I had covered half a mile of concrete and cobblestones.

“I’m sure they were long gone before the sun rose,” she said. “Dammit. I really wanted to catch one.” A fancy silver handle stuck out of her front pocket, and she worried at it with her fingers. She caught me looking and pulled it out. On the other end was a square cake server, like from a wedding. But the neck had been flattened. “Like I said, I never leave home without it. These buggers’ weakness is silver.”

“I thought that was werewolves,” I said, just joking. It worried me when she didn’t laugh.

“Don’t worry,” she said, and tucked her odd weapon back in her pocket. “We’ll get you a silver blade. This is just my…security blanket. Anything silver will do as long as you can get it through their skin.”

I kept peeking sideways while we walked, waiting for her to break character and admit she was only trying to scare me.

She never did.

We joinedthe men at a sidewalk cafe two blocks beyond the crime scene. Persi was still missing, but there were chairs for six. Wickham straightened and set his phone aside. “We’ve ordered breakfast. Shouldn’t be long now. Persi must be seeing some success—”

The chair beside Wickham suddenly jumped back from the tableon its ownand Wickham grabbed it, pulled it back even further. Then scooted it forward again.

“Not yet,” he said quietly, then looked up and down the sidewalk.

“Not yet,” Everly repeated, then nodded at a woman seated inside the window, watching us through the glass. When the woman looked away, my elegant friend said, “Now.”

Wickham nodded. “Now is good.”

Persephone appeared in the chair, suddenly,magicallyand reached for the nearest coffee cup, turned it right side up, and set it on its saucer. “Tell me someone ordered me coffee.” She glanced at Wickham’s stern expression and winced. “Sorry. Completely forgot. I should have gone visiblearound the corner. I’m just…a little shaken, that’s all.”

Wickham turned to me. “She didn’t mean to shock ye, lass. Are ye all right?”

I gave him a thumbs up, fearing my voice might give me away. If invisibility was possible…then fairies with claws must be as well.Dammit.

13

Monsters & Dolce & Gabbana

Three waiters carried platters to the table and placed them ceremoniously on the surface. “Family-a-style,” one of them said, though his facial expression said he disapproved. One charcuterie tray of meats and cheese. The other three were covered with different filled pastries and croissants with fruit as garnish.

Urban scowled at the latter. “No fry up?”

The waiter’s eyes widened, but he said nothing and walked away. A fourth man came with another platter, then walked around the table leaving a tiny pitcher of milk, a small bowl of flower-shaped pats of butter, and an egg cup. A fifth man came outside bearing a tray of coffee cups.

Persi waved him to her, took the first cup, and drained it while he made his way around the table. She lifted her empty cup into the air and pointed at it before he could get away. “Any chance you can bring a pot? Otherwise, you’ll be running your…uh…legsoff.”

He turned to Wickham. “Family-a-style, eh?”

“Aye. Family style. Thank ye.”

Urban picked up his tiny pitcher and sniffed it. It was a Barbie toy compared to his hand. “Milk.”

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